


Staying Warm

by mswhich



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Prompt Fill
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-09
Updated: 2017-12-09
Packaged: 2019-02-12 16:26:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12963525
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mswhich/pseuds/mswhich
Summary: When Neville visits Luna in the middle of a raging blizzard, he can't bring himself to tell her exactly why he's come, but she seems to know anyway.





	Staying Warm

**Author's Note:**

> From a photo prompt fill. The photo was of a pyramid-shaped lamp with a cat curled over top of it. The fill was supposed to be 100 words only, but as per usual I overwrote my target. 
> 
> I don't always share the results of my prompt fills here, but I really liked this one and I thought maybe others might as well.

Neville stamped his feet for warmth. His shoes were encrusted with snow, as were his trousers up to the knees. He'd walked here in what had turned into a right blizzard, and he could barely feel his feet.

_ Shouldn't have come_, he thought. _ Only going to be awkward. _

He raised his hand to knock on the door, then lowered it. Raised it again and held it there, hovering in space an inch from the surface. Snow collected in his hair and eyebrows. Just as he’d nearly convinced himself to walk away, the door opened. Luna Lovegood stood in the entrance, backlit by the rosy glow of the cottage interior. "Neville!" she said. "What are you--" She stopped, taking in his appearance. "You look freezing," she said.

"I am a bit," he admitted, lowering his hand and tucking it into his pocket.

She turned and disappeared into the cottage. He waited uncertainly for a moment, and she said over her shoulder, “Are you coming in?"

“Uh,” he said, “yes. If that’s... I mean, yes.” He came in but stopped just inside, not wanting to drip melted snow all over her floor. The hearth had a roaring fire going, and the snow was coming off him in rivulets.

Luna cast a Hot-Air Charm on him to dry him. "Thanks," he said. He glanced past her into the cottage. Small but cozy, with an overstuffed couch and shelves overflowing with odd knick-knacks. 

“What were you doing on my porch?” she asked, with an open, inquisitive expression.

"I brought papers from work," he said. "You said last time we met that you...that there was a story for your newspaper...I mean, that my work might be useful..." 

He trailed off, and she tilted her head and knit her brows. _Stupid, Neville._

"You walked here in a blizzard to give me things for a story in the Quibbler?" she asked. Her hair looked almost translucent in the filtered wintry light.

Neville nodded miserably.  _ Not exactly, _ he thought, but the real reason jammed in his throat like a stuck biscuit.

She peered at him as though examining him for fever. "Yes," she said decisively, "you're freezing. Come over here."

She led him to a small table in the corner of the room atop which a tabby cat perched.

"Shoo, Tabs," Luna said. The cat unwound itself and leapt down from the table, revealing a small, glowing pyramid. "Put your hands on one side," Luna said, "and I'll put mine on the other."

Neville eyed the pyramid. "Why?" he asked.

"You'll see," she said. Her eyes sparkled. 

Neville put his hands on the pyramid. He felt only cool, smooth quartz, but as soon as Luna touched it from the other side, warmth flowed into his hands and traveled throughout his body. It felt, well... _delicious_. Luna watched him avidly. "See?" she said. "Warm." 

"Warm," he breathed in agreement.

"It does one other thing," she said. 

"Does it?" he said, his voice dreamy and distant.

"It transmits our thoughts to each other."

Neville's eyebrows nearly shot off his forehead. "It does what?" he said. He meant to take his hands off the thing, he really did, but just then he received a rather vivid mental image of what Luna was thinking.

"...oh," he managed. Her mouth curved into a secretive grin, and she nodded.

His breath hitched in his chest as he seemed to have forgotten how to breathe. "Luna," he said with wide eyes.

"Stay, Neville," she said. "Stay and keep warm."

  
  



End file.
